“Sit and Get” Don’t Grow Dendrites: It’s Time for a Fundamental Shift From Focusing on Teaching to Focusing on Student Learning

Students in today's classrooms learn very differently than the way most of the people teaching them were taught.  Students today need and want to be actively engaged for effective learning to take place.  The fundamental shift has to be from a focus on teaching and what is the teacher doing to a focus on student learning and the impact each activity and action in the classroom has on student learning. 

For many decades, observations and the assessment of school classrooms were on the actions of the teacher: “The Sage on The Stage” with long lectures and possibly note taking.  Brain research contradicts this approach as being the most effective.  Research tells us that the person doing the work is the one doing the learning.  In many classrooms that person doing all of the work is the teacher, it shouldn’t be. If we are still doing lecture and having students take copious notes, which muscles are we really exercising?  and what’s the impact on student learning?  Contrary to what people think, the brain can’t really multi-task either, so we can’t 100% concentrate on listening to a lecture and taking notes at the same time.  A more effective way to do this activity would be to listen intently for short periods (1-2 mins.) and then do a quick write to process and review what was just said. Then the student and/or teacher needs to review or use that content one more time before the brain will comprehend and retain because three is the minimum number of times something must be taught before brain research tells us the brain will retain.  Doing those things and in those ways are grounded in brain research and the way that all brains learn more efficiently.  21^st Century Learners’ greatest retention rates come from reciprocal teaching, collaboration and classroom talk, creation and project-based tasks, inquiry and problem-based approaches, learning by doing….activities where they are actively engaged. 

One of the best solutions to classroom management problems is to have a classroom where students are engaged, one of the best ways to reduce tardies and students skipping class is to have a classroom where students want to come to learn, and one of the best ways to increase student achievement and reduce discipline is to have a classroom that’s fun.  Wouldn’t everyone learn more if instruction was both rigorous and relevant, including an element of fun and enjoyment with learning?  Everyday students and teachers should be greeted, should hear something positive, and laugh and/or smile.  Research tells us that it takes 47 facial muscles to frown and only 13 to smile, laughing reduces endorphins and chemicals in the body that reduce stress, your body can’t tell the difference in genuine laughter and fake laughter so either way it helps reduce stress, and reducing stress not only helps you to live longer but also makes a learning environment more effective.

The pandemic and reopening of schools is an excellent opportunity to reinvent and redesign learning through shifting our focus to student learning instead of teacher actions.  The most important part of teacher actions are the impacts they have on student learning.  The transition to virtual or blended learning shifts the focus to the teacher as a content creator and facilitator of learning.  By nature, assessments will be more authentic and both scaffolded and differentiated.  This will change the focus to a priority towards learning and mastery of standards with multiple methods of students being able to demonstrate their learning and have a self-reported grading or assessment approach.  The title I chose for this post was “Sit & Get” Don’t Grow Dendrites, based on Dr. Marcia’s Tate’s research on student engagement and brain-based learning.  It’s fact that worksheets and lower order activities aren’t the answer to increasing student achievement.  If students can do the worksheets they don’t need them, they need to accelerate and move forward.  If students can’t do the worksheets it won’t help them anyway.  Yet, many teachers think students filling in worksheets qualifies as learning.  If you look at student achievement rates nation-wide and especially in classrooms driven by worksheets and “sit and get” instruction, you’d have to borrow a line from Dr. Phil and ask “How’s that working for you?  Has it every really worked for you?”  

Research demonstrates that schools with high levels of music and arts are also the most academically successful.  Why?....Because those schools engage both hemispheres of the brain in learning, decades of brain research and data on student performance fully supports this approach. The pressing questions is….why don’t all classrooms in all schools do that?  Learning isn’t complicated, but it’s both an art and a science.  Great teachers know how to use both the art and science of teaching and learning to make learning rigorous, relevant, and most importantly FUN!  It’s not a revolutionary concept, but it works!

         Obstacles or opportunities.....it's up to us! As we enter the 2020-21 school year, we need to embrace the opportunities that we have as educators to work with children and impact future generations.  We need to create a safe, supportive, engaging, and fun learning environment.  With all of the school choice options, we are lucky that students and parents choose us for their education.  Without students, they wouldn’t need teachers, principals, or schools.  It should’ve always been about students and their learning, never about adults and what’s easiest for the adults in the building!  Let’s remember who our customers are and focus on service with gratitude in creating an engaging and fun learning environment for ALL students!